Chicago Cubs head to nation’s most boring city for the weekend

One of baseball’s best rivalries takes center stage this weekend as the Chicago Cubs battle the division rival St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend, St. Louis is a decidedly more exciting city – at least for Chicago Cubs fans. Joe Maddon‘s squad opens a three-game set at Busch Stadium Friday night, looking to get back to their winning ways after dropping two consecutive series.

Of course, the offseason spat between Kris Bryant and Yadier Molina is on everybody’s minds – after the former called St. Louis ‘boring’ at Cubs Convention. The Cardinals catcher took exception to the remark, airing his grievances on social media.

“Of course, it’s going to be not great,” Bryant told MLB.com this week. “I was watching [Manny] Machado get booed by the Yankees [fans]. I don’t know. I hope they boo all of us. We want the games to be a nice rivalry, intense. It’s always nice to play there, because there’s a ton of people there, a lot of our fans show up. It makes it fun. No hard feelings.”

Chicago (31-23) has managed to hold on to a slim lead in the National League Central, despite playing what can only be described as inconsistent baseball over the last couple of weeks. The Cubs dropped two of three to both the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros over the last seven days – and are looking for a strong showing heading into the month of June.

The offense, which has already set a franchise record for home runs in the month of May, hasn’t been a concern. They’ve been slugging and getting on base on a near-daily basis and there’s no reason to suspect that will change this weekend. Pitching, however, will take center stage – with both teams looking for quality from their starters.

Chicago Cubs: Looking at the pitching matchups this weekend

Yu Darvish takes the ball opposite Miles Mikolas in Friday’s opener, with both hurlers seeking to turn things around. Mikolas, who finished sixth in NL Cy Young voting last season after pitching to a 2.83 ERA and winning a league-best 18 games, has struggled badly in 2019. On the year, he carries a bloated 4.76 ERA and 4.85 FIP in 11 outings. That being said, he has been decidedly better at home than on the road – so that’s something to keep in mind.

As for Darvish, he gutted his way through seven-plus innings in some insanely hitter-friendly conditions last weekend at Wrigley Field against the Reds. The line score didn’t do much to assuage any fears about the right-hander, but you could easily make the case that it was his most important start as a Cub. 

On Saturday, Jose Quintana looks to stay on track against 23-year-old hurler Jack Flaherty. Chicago has won six of his last outings, according to MLB.com, and he’s been one of the most consistent pieces of a rotation that’s struggled to eat innings of late. If he can get back to his early season success, the Cubs stand a great chance of coming away with a win.

The two teams then turn around for an afternoon series finale Sunday with a pair of veteran hurlers on the bump. Cole Hamels takes the ball for Chicago with Adam Wainwright opposing him for the Cardinals. The latter clearly isn’t what he once was and Hamels has been brutal in his last two starts, lasting just four innings in both. Looking at the numbers, we could see a high-scoring affair.